Horst-Wessel-Lied

The Horst-Wessel-Lied ( Song of Horst Wessel ) was, under the Nazisme, the official anthem of SA then Parti national-Socialist the German workers (NSDAP = the Nazi party). He was constantly played and sung under the Third Reich and its interpretation was obligatory before each concert of classical music.

The text of the Horst-Wessel-Lied had been written by young SA Horst Wessel, shot down in 1930 in an exchange of shots with communist . Since 1945 the German law prohibited to sing the Horst-Wessel-Lied or to play a recording as a public of it. This prohibition, which rises directly from the Procès of Nuremberg, relates to also the melody. An interpretation with other words is thus quite as illegal.

History

The Horst-Wessel-Lied was published for the first time in August 1929 in the form of a poem in the press agency of SA Der Angriff (“the Attack”) under the title Die Fahne hoch! (“the raised flag! ”).

Wessel made use of a text written by the communist poet Willi Bredel for the Rote Frontkämpferbund (the Union of defense of the German Communist party under the Weimar Republic) and adapted it for SA.

Shortly after the death of Wessel, shot down by Alfred Röhler, member of the Rote Frontkämpferbund on February 23rd 1930, the song was the subject of a reprinting in the Völkischer Beobachter with the mention “the safety of Wessel Horst in Germany to come”. The song then became the official anthem of the Nazi party and the “Gospel of the movement” (Ingeborg Wessel).

Words

Die Fahne hoch! Die Reihen dicht geschlossen!

SA marschiert put ruhig festem Schritt

Kam' raden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen,

Marschier' N im Geist in unser' N Reihen put

Die Straße frei den braunen Bataillonen,

Die Straße frei dem Sturmabteilungsmann!

Es schau' N aufs Hakenkreuz flight Hoffnung schon Millionen

Der Tag für Freiheit und für Brot bricht year

Zum letzten Badly wird zum Call geblasen!

Zum Kampfe steh' N to wir ale schon bereit.

Bald flattern Hitlerfahnen über allen Straßen.

Die Knechtschaft dauert nur noch kurze Zeit!

Die Fahne hoch! Die Reihen dicht geschlossen!

SA marschiert put ruhig festem Schritt.

Kam' raden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen,

Marschier' N im Geist in unsern Reihen put.

The text of Wessel glorifie SA (paramilitary section of attack for the period Nazi).

French translation:

Le high flag, rows well serrés.
(It) SA ravels of a calm and firm step!
(Them) comrades shot by the red face and the reaction.
Ravel with us, in spirit in our rows!

The street is free for the battalions bruns.
The street is free for the man of SA.
Million already full with hope admires swastika.
The day of freedom and the bread éveille.

For the last time the call is sonné.
We all are already ready for the combat.
Soon the flags hitlériens will float with the top of all the streets (of all the barricades).
The constraint will not last any more longtemps.

(At the end, the first stanza is taken again)

Melody

The melody takes again that of a popular song ( der Abenteurer ) whose air is itself is drawn from the opera Joseph of Etienne Nicolas Méhul (http://ingeb.org/Lieder/ichlebte.html). Etienne Méhul is also the type-setter of famous the Chant of the Departure .

According to the article 86a of the German Penal code, the Horst-Wessel-Lied belongs to the signs of anticonstitutional organizations whose diffusion is prohibited. That is worth in particular for the melody and any interpretation is prohibited even with other words.

Context

Without a relatively precise knowledge of the political situation in Germany towards 1930, to which Horst Wessel refers, the text of the song is not easily comprehensible.

That is due not only in the passing which refer in the choice of the words or the intention with the context of the end of the Weimar Republic, but also to certain technical inconsistencies and linguistics which deserve to be raised.

The term of “red Face” ( Rotfront ), clearly pejorative in the mouth of the Nazis, makes reference to Rote Frontkämpferbund, militia antifascist generated by the Communist party of Germany, KPD.

For the current reader, who assimilates the Nazism with the extreme line, it can appear strange that Wessel refers to the “reaction”, with the right-hand side of the Nazi party. That appeared nevertheless before 1934 naturalness with many members of the NSDAP and particularly with SA which were regarded as belonging as much to a movement social-revolutionist, opposed the preserving forces and to monarchists of the middle-class, that with the national Parti the German people ( Deutschnationale Volkspartei ).

In fact the Nazis took to the capacity in 1933 in a coalition with these forces “reactionaries” and the social-revolutionist fraction of the Nazi party as well as SA were isolated in 1934 at the time of the “Nuit of the long knives”, which did not prevent the NSDAP making of this song their anthem and from making of it the execution obligatory at the time of any official demonstration.

Parodies

The most known parody is that of the " Kälbermarsch" (" the walk of the veaux" in French) in Schweik in the Second world war (1943) of Bertolt Brecht:

Behind the drum, trottent the calves
The skin for the drum, they deliver it themselves.

The butcher calls. Completely closed eyes,
The calf ravels of a calm and firm step.
The calves, whose blood overflows already in the slaughter-house,
Follow by the spirit in their rows.

German text:

Hinter DER Trommel, trotten die Kälber
(Das) Fell für die Trommel, liefern sy selber.

Der Metzger ruft. Die Augen fest geschlossen
Das Kalb marschiert put ruhig festem Tritt.
(Die) Kälber, deren Blut im Schlachthof schon geflossen
Ziehen im Geist, in seinen Reihen put.

Another parody is the following one:

Les high prices, well contained mouths,
The hunger goes of a firm and quiet step,
Hitler and Goebbels our two comrades,
Our spirits of prolétaires.

starve
At the office of work, one sounds the S.O.S,
We all are ready for the pointing,
Instead of bread and of work, Führer gives us only sentences,
And that which speaks does not survive longtemps.

The street empeste of the brown battalions,
A kid makes sign with the officer of body,
Perhaps it as head of party of the million will gain tomorrow,
However that does not make us more shit brown that other chose.

German text:

Die Preise hoch, die Schnauze fest geschlossen
Hunger marschiert in ruhig festem Schritt
Hitler und Goebbels un' sre beiden Volksgenossen,
Hungern im Geist put ones Proleten mit.

Im Arbeitsamt wird S.O.S geblasen
Zum Stempeln stehn to wir ale Mann bereit.
Statt Brot und Arbeit gibt der Führer ones nur Phrasen
Und wer was sagt lebt nur noch kurze Zeit.

Die Strasse stinkt nach braunen Batallionen,
Ein Pöstchen winkt dem Strurmabteilunsmann.
Vielleicht verdient er, Morgen, als Bonze Millionen,
Doch das geht ones 'nen braunen Scheissdreck year!

Recoveries

In a famous scene of the film Casablanca (1942), the voice of the German officers who sing is covered by that of the customers of the Rick' S American Café who entonnent the Marseillaise . Initially, it was expected that German sings the Horst-Wessel-Lied , which would have been variously appreciated and the producers preferred to make them sing the song Die Wacht amndt Rhein , a patriotic song which goes up with the German Empire.

One can hear the " Horst Wessel Lied" in a scene of the film Blues Brothers , during which American the néo-Nazi chief paints an eagle by listening to a recording Nazi of the HWL.

Milva, an Italian singer (who also sings in German) interprets in her albums Canti della Libertà (1965) and Libertà (1976) the Horst-Wessel-Lied of Italian Brecht.

The " Horst Wessel Lied" in basic topic during a good part of Italian film " is; One day particulière" (Marcello Mastroiani) which evokes in particular a procession of troops fascites and Nazis in Rome in 1935

The video game Wolfenstein 3D (1992) uses the Horst-Wessel-Lied as music-title. One can also hear it in his remake Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001).

The antenna of Alberta of the Royal Canadian Legion used inadvertently in 2005 the Horst-Wessel-Lied like melody in a publicity campaign for a lottery.

The Horst-Wessel-Lied is also used in many pieces of identity Rock German and several alternate versions can be found on Internet.

See too

Giovinezza , anthem of the Italian fascistic party
Lied der Jugend (“Song of youth”, known also under the name of Dollfuss - Lied ), Austrian fascistic anthem.
Marshal, here us are! , a French song with the glory of the marshal Pétain.
Cara Al ground , the anthem of the Spanish Phalange.

External bonds

an analysis of the song
the '' Kälbermarsch '' of Bertolt Brecht

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